My wife was going to round a sharp curve at about 45-50mph with our '85 240GL wagon (212K mi.) on her normal daily commute and all of the sudden lost control of the steering and bounced the right corner of the front bumper against a guard rail and went over into the other lane and hit a concrete barrier. It had to be towed to a shop after not starting.

Warning: after an accident, please do not rush too quickly in the repair:

(1) make sure the mechanic *totally* looks over the car to get a good

perspective, and (2) insist in advance on the prices of parts. I did not do

that, and what happened? They told me that since it did not start and

several things were tried, that the next logical candidate was replacing

the fuel pump. I said go ahead, and they did. Only later on did I find out

that it cost $395! But to compound it, they later realized after jacking it

up other problems: the motor mounts broke, resulting (?) power steering

system problems, right bumper shifted down a bit, disconnected muffler,

etc. Lesson: please insist on a complete damage report before anything is

fixed to decide if it is worth it.

Now, two questions:

What could have resulted in the loss of control around the curve? My wife

tells me that about a mile before the accident, she felt a couple of

swivels a couple of minutes apart. The mechanics think that the motor

mounts failed beforehand and ended up destabilizing the car, leading to the

accident.

We ended up spending $500 total to get the car driving again. With 212K

miles, is it worth it to dump another $500 into it to fix motor mounts,

muffler, etc.? The engine & auto trans. still sound great. Cosmetic damage

is irrelevant to us. Is this still a reliable car?

Thank you for your kind consideration.